A Gift From A Spectre
by Musicalrain
Summary: Sequel to: A Date with a Spectre's Daughter. 10 yrs later. Focus on GarrusxFemshep's son & how a girl falls for him. Many OCs. Some EDIxJoker & JackxVega. Rated M: language & some mature-like content. I have no rights to Mass Effect. Please Review!


A gift from a Spectre

Sydney plopped down on the bed of her hotel room, and throughly examined the 'new' antique diary she was given as a gift. She ran her hands over the maroon colored cloth cover. It was heavy and thick, very durable. _Awe. He remembered my favorite color._ A smile spread over her face, and then she looked at the binding, printed on the spine in perfect gold script, was 'My Diary'. She pulled out the pen she was given, it was gold and antique in style too, a true ballpoint pen. A thick gold colored ribbon kept the book shut, it was sewn into the cover. The diary was thick, it could easily be used for a year, or six months given the way she liked to write.

She had a few hours before he would be back, so she decided to write in it. She arranged herself on the bed, pillows all around, and brought one on her lap to support the book. She unraveled the bow, and opened the diary for the first time. A even bigger smiled spread over her face as she saw the message he left for her in perfect handwriting, _which must not have been easy_, on the inside of the front cover. She read, "_Hope this inspires something great."_ and giggled, _oh, this inspires something, clearly. _

It had been awhile, _probably since grade-school_, since she's written by hand. She was looking forward to it. She thought about what she was going to write. She knew that traditionally diaries went day-by-day, but she didn't like starting in the middle, as she thought the time was. _This will be a story about the diary_. So, she decided to start at the events that led to her receiving the diary, _and then I can go about it the right way._

…...

Sydney put pen to paper, and started to write:

Karin, well Spectre Karin Shepard-Vakarian, had gone off once we were docked on the Citadel to get a "friendly face," as she put it. I thought she was going to come back with someone completely different, but she came back with her old flame, Jerry, Lieutenant Jeremiah Green.

Wait, I should back up. We were at the Citadel, because Karin and her brother, Spectre Mordin Shepard-Vakarian, had just received permission for the joint turian-human operation to track the batarian pirate-slaver king, Eble Sen. Eble Sen was into some nasty things, he was targeting poor towns on Earth and Palavan, places still recovering thirty years later, after the wars. It's common knowledge that a lot of the homeworlds are still struggling to reclaim life as it was before the wars. I guess Earth and Palavan had made good targets, since they had received the brunt of the Reaper attacks, and many places are still in ruins. But of course, the New Citadel is the exception, a self-proclaimed flourishing apex of society.

Apparently Karin had wanted Jerry on the ground-team, since he's N7. But, everyone knows she just wanted to keep an eye on him. He wasn't yet assigned since his last mission, and he was available, but the girl was plain as day, she still had feelings for him. Jerry told me, that just a few days before, he was targeted by assassins, since he's been going off on his own to mess with Red Sand dealers.

Oh! When he asked her how she knew all this, she pointed at herself and said, "Spectre," and pointed at him, and said "Dumbass." Oh, his face. It was great! I'm glad they decided to do that right by the airlock, so I could get a nice view.

After that little exchange, she dragged him over to introduce him to me. I stood up, and saluted. Karin said, "This is our pilot, Sydney Moreau." she turned and said, "This is Lieutenant Jeremiah Green." I put out my hand and said, "Syd," he took it and said, "Jerry." That was the first time I had seen him in person, but Karin would sometimes talk about him. Everyone likes to chat with the pilot, it seems. Plus, I know Karin likes me, and my skills, she had requested me to pilot the Olympia fresh out of flight school. Most people have to have a few years under their belt, before they get to pilot a stealth fighter like that.

Anyways, after that little introduction, I popped a lollipop in my mouth, plopped back down in my seat, and turned around as Karin gave Jerry a little background info on me. I didn't mind. I only interrupted when their conversation about my parents started to bother me, it always does. I only said something like, "Them political bastards keep giving my ma and pa problems to this day! You know, everyone felt _real_ bad when they thought that all the synthetics, my ma and the geth included, had died when the Reapers were destroyed. But when they finally rebooted themselves, they all got their damned political sticks shoved back up their asses!"

I'm proud to say that I'm the daughter of the first syntheitc-organic couple, and that Karin's mom, the famous Jane Shepard, still supports them to this day. Obviously, since I'm not a synthetic, I was conceived by a surrogate. No one would let my parents adopt, too much political bullshit, I guess.

My mom had interrupted the conversation too, to point out my language. Jerry was scared shitless when he noticed the blue orb holo of my mom talking. He could barely spit out the words to ask if that was my mother. I had to explain that, since she's a synthetic, with quantum computing capabilities and access to the ship's computers, she can be in more than one place at a time. I also mentioned, that her physical platform isn't onboard, because she likes to stick around my dad. That seemed to confuse Jerry, a lot. Then Karin dragged him away to introduce him to her XO, Lieutenant Nick Vega, who's the son of the third human Spectre, by the way.

Then we were off, heading to Omega, where we had a lead on Eble Sen's right-hand man, a batarian named Welik Hir.

The next time I saw Jerry, was late that night while we were in FTL. He overheard a vid-call I was on with my dad and my mom. After he was caught and all that, I had asked my mom for a transcript of what he heard. It was embarrassing, but here's what I remember of it:

My dad said, "Uh, I dunno Syd. I just thought, uh, that you'd be more into, I dunno, something else."

Then I said, "Just come out and say it dad – you thought I was gay."

"No! No, that's definitely _not_ what I was going to say! I just thought, well, you're a lot like me, and," he coughed, "you're mom, well, she's not your typical woman. And, ah, I didn't think you'd be into someone so, so muscular. Ah, crap. You know, EDI, help your daughter."

Then my mom said, "Just because Sydney shares over 60% of her DNA with you, Jeff, doesn't mean that she too finds synthetics attractive."

I spoke again, "Yeah. Sorry that there's not a lot of handsome geth running around, pa. And even if I did come across one, they probably wouldn't even be attracted to me."

My dad spoke again, "Hey now, you're very attractive Syd! Oh my god, I can't believe I just said that... To my own daughter. You know what, I'm done now. EDI, you're not helping."

My mom spoke again, "Sydney, Lieutenant Green has been listening in on this conversation for approximately the last three minutes. There. I helped, Jeff."

After that, Jerry came out and apologized, he took a seat in the co-pilot's chair, and said that he couldn't sleep, and thought some star-gazing would help. He asked me if I was talking to my parents about relationships, and I said, "Yeah I was. And I know a lot of people don't talk to their parents about sex and stuff, but when your mother is _everywhere_, it's hard not to. So I sometimes embrace it." He seemed to like that reply, and so I asked him to promise to not breath a word of what I was about to tell him. He seemed honest enough, so I told him about how my ma noticed that my heart rate and body temperature elevated around this one guy, so I decided to ask if they thought I had a chance with him. What a disaster. So, I asked Jerry. He was fighting a smirk, when he said that he had known Nick Vega since before they were in the Alliance, and that he was partial to younger women, and brunettes. I'm not going to lie, that made my day. After that, I guess the ice was broken, we chatted a little longer.

Wow. I wrote probably too much about that, anyways, he joined me for late-night talks for the next two nights, until we reached Omega. My dad tells me that the trip would've been quicker before the wars, since after the rebuild the relays were never quite were the same, I guess. You know, if Jerry was a chick, he would probably be my best girlfriend. And it's weird that he is, since he's not even gay or anything. Maybe more on that later.

Once on Omega, Karin, Mordin, Jerry, and a turian named Naron, went to Afterlife to meet with Aria, self proclaimed queen of Omega. Word was, that she had information that could lead to Welik Hir.

After some short conversing, Aria told Karin that she'd give her info on Welik, if she destroyed any information he had on the Blue Suns. Apparently, Welik and a small team were trying to raise hell with the Suns, and it was causing Aria to have a bad day, or month, or whatever.

Aria gave them info on the apartments that Welik was using for his base of operations, and the four of them practically stormed the place. Karin and Mordin are trained snipers, but Karin was the only biotic, so she, apparently, _had _to be on the front. From what I heard, they all dealt with everything quickly. Mordin and Karin shook down Welik, got him to talk about Eble Sen and the Suns, and then Mordin executed him.

When they all got back, Karin went on ship-wide comm by the airlock, and said "Alright people. Mission accomplished. We are staying on Omega for the night. No one, and I repeat, no one is to leave the ship unless they have permission."

I saw her give orders to Mordin and Jerry to get some supplies together while they were docked, you know food reserves, ammo, and stuff. I saw the death-glare Mordin gave Jerry, before he replied with a "Of course," to his sister. I didn't like the idea of Mordin tearing apart my new friend, so I skipped over towards the three of them, Naron had scurried off awhile before that, and I asked Karin if I could come along. She raised one eyebrow at me before replying, "Sure thing Syd. Just wear your light armor, and bring your guns. Don't take any chances." I smiled, perfectly amused, and saluted with a "Yes, ma'am." She's the only one I'm super formal with, it's funny really.

After I, quickly, got ready, Jerry seemed to be confused as to why I, a pilot duh, even had armor and guns, which I proudly own a top of the line SMG and pistol. I was more than happy to clarify, saying that my mom had trained me for combat since I was little, and I was a self-proclaimed unofficial hand-to-hand specialist. I can kick some ass if I ever need to. My parents had told me about the time that Collectors had boarded the Normandy, they both agreed that it was important that a pilot could fight.

Once we were out and about, Mordin and Jerry went on over to a black-market dealer, and I offered to pick us up all some snacks at a nearby food kiosk. They both, especially Mordin, seemed nervous about me going off on my own, but I just thought it was sweet. I'm no damsel. I know it's Omega and all, and despite it being overly depressing, it's still a cool place, but also dangerous, super dangerous, I know that.

I had to grill the cook about the various kabobs he had. That was a joke. Anyways, the chicken didn't look like chicken, more like weird bright-yellow cubes, but it still smelled the best. And when I got back over to the boys, they had just finished their purchases. I happily shoved a chicken-like kabob into Jerry's hands, and walked over to Mordin. Jerry had backed-off when I did, I didn't know why at the time. But, when I handed the meat kabob to Mordin, I said "And here's some sort of roasted lizard kabob for you, Mordin. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the guy swore you would like it." He took it with one hand and said, "Thank you, Syd." He looked as nervous as ever, and I didn't know why. Then he said, "Oh, uh here's a model ship I got for you, while you were, ah, buying us some food." He has this like super deep reverberating voice, and it was terribly cute with him being nervous like that. Honestly it shocked me, the flanging of his voice increased, and the big tall turian seemed afraid! Of what, I didn't know. I smiled, a real honest to god smile, and said, "Awe. Thanks Mordin! That's really sweet." I'm a hugger, so I hugged him quickly with one arm. I pulled away and took a good look at the box, it was a Destiny Ascension. I told him that I didn't have that one, and thanks so much, and he nervously rubbed the back of his neck, and said "No problem."

When we got back onboard, after I took off my armor and whatnot, I went to the lounge and built my model right away. Karin had put a little display case in there, and most of my ships were there. I still have a ton back at my parent's house on Tiptree. Karin often bought me a ship or two on our old adventures, I've been the pilot here for awhile, and so I didn't think much about it at the time.

But that changed when Jerry came up for our late-night chat. He casually sat in the co-pilot's chair and said, "Hey, Syd. Rumor is that someone has a crush on you." I punched him on the shoulder, and teased him about finally admitting his feelings. He chuckled and said, "No, not me. And not Nick. You have three more guesses." I guessed Preston and Diamond, both of whom would stare at a woman's ass until it caught fire, and then gave up and told him to spit it out. He smiled wide and said, "Mordin." I didn't know what to think, he's cute, sure. And like this super alpha male badass turian, but sweet. And a Spectre, totally out of my league.

I noticed my mouth hanging open, and called Jerry on his bullshit, while I was acting all flustered and running a hand through my hair. The jackass swiveled in his seat, and said "So, you gonna give up on pursuing Nick, and go after Mordin?" I scrunched up my face, and demanded that he tell me that he was messing with me. He smugly said something like, "Nope. I'm dead serious. I was there when he bought you that model ship. He was checking you out, and blushed when I asked him if the ship was for you. He's smitten." I asked him for details, and he coughed and said that well, in my dark-blue skin-tight armor, which he says is more like a skin-suit with a few armored plates on it, which I don't believe, it's totally armor, it was hard not to notice my "feminine features". Then he said that when he interrupted Mordin's ogling, he couldn't come up with a good reason for it. So Jerry asked about the ship and he said that Mordin's light-colored neck picked up a hint of blue, before he replied that it was for me, since I collect ship models. Jerry proudly claimed that he told him to buy it for me.

I was blushing deep red by then, and couldn't keep the stupid grin off of my face. Then, of course, my mom buts her theoretical nose in my business, and says "Sydney, I do believe your chances of establishing a healthy romantic relationship are greater with the Spectre, Mordin." I yelled at her, and told her to quit stalking me. She's never gonna stop stalking me...

Anyways, that was the first time that I had thought about Mordin in like a romantic way, I guess. I mean, it's not to say that I hadn't checked him out before that, because I did, definitely. I'm not like a xenophobic, or anything like that. I've had my share of interesting... happenings with aliens before. I remember this one time, on shore-leave, I woke up hung over and butt naked in some asari's apartment. Oh, I'm getting off topic. But yeah, Mordin's a little taller than most other turians, and I'm not gonna lie, he has a nice ass.

So, since we were stuck in FTL for like ever, since the relays suck out in the Termius (we were heading to Illium now), I decided to join Mordin for breakfast. He was eating with a few of the other turian crew. They get up earlier than the humans, but since they are technically on an Alliance ship, they still eat later. I plopped down with my scrambled eggs and bagel next to him, and he visibly straightened when I did that. He was listening to a conversation between the two turians across from him, something about sparring. I put an elbow on the table, and turned to poke Mordin in the shoulder. I said, "Good morning, sir." I was half-tempted to call him sunshine, for shits and giggles, but I didn't know what his turian buddies would think, so I didn't. He turned and smiled and said, "Good morning, Syd. Sydney." I then proceeded to devourer my breakfast, while we listened to the other two turians. I was just about done, when the other two turians excused themselves.

Mordin let out a slow breath, and visibly relaxed. He turned towards me, "So... How'd the model ship turn out?" I grinned, "It's the best damned thing ever. You wanna see it?" He nodded, and so I picked up our plates, and got rid of them. He followed close behind to the nearby lounge. When we entered we walked over to the display case, and he raised a hand to his chin, pretending to consider my work on it. He turned, a big old turian grin on his face, and said "You're right, it is the best damned thing ever." I giggled, and put a hand on his upper right arm.

Now, I should say here, that the way I approach guys depends on the guy. So like with Nick, I was a nervous idiot and couldn't do anything about it. But with Mordin, I felt totally in my element with him. He was the nervous one, so when he looked down at my lingering hand, and then clamped his mandibles tight against his face when he saw the look I was giving him, I literally said, "Oh hell," and stood on my tiptoes, and decided to kiss the breath out of him. My momma was kind enough to lock the lounge door.

And, to my delight, when I started to kiss him, he kissed back. It was strange kissing a turian, I had never done it before. I've kissed human men, quarian men, this one drell guy, and that asari, but never a turian. It was good. It felt right. Things started to get, um, more intense after a few moments. He actually hoisted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, they fit perfectly along his hips. He was making some deep pleased sounding sounds, and I could feel them through my own chest as he pushed me closer to him. After what seemed like an eternity of this, he slowly set me back down, with our mouths still locked to one another, his hands on my waist. He was the first to break away from the kiss, he took a few deep breaths and placed his forehead on mine, I had seen it enough that I knew what it was, what it meant. He said, "We're on duty." I pulled back and laughed, damn turian military mentality. I put my forehead back, and wrapped my arms around his neck, I replied, "I know, silly." He made some sort of deep, humming-like sound and closed his eyes as he said, "Stop by my quarters tonight." I brought my face back down to his lips, and kissed him softly before I replied with, "Count on it."

Needless to say, I was the last one out of the lounge. I was way, way too giddy. And you may be wondering, how can I go from being all nervous around one guy, to practically drowning myself in another's saliva in just a few days? Well it's simple really, I wanted Nick for his body, and was nervous as a result, but Mordin was the real deal. My attraction to Mordin is something more than just physical, he's like someone I could actually see myself with. And I would have never known Mordin's feelings, if it wasn't for my number one girlfriend, Jerry.

I've known Karin, Nick, and Mordin since we were all kids. I'm the youngest, so naturally the others were closer with one another, and they all lived on the New Citadel. I lived on Tiptree, so I only saw them on reunions, and holidays, and stuff, which actually wasn't that often. Like two, maybe three, times a year. When we were little, we called each other's parents our aunts and uncles, even though they're not. Ever since we've been in the Alliance, we've all been on a first-name basis. It was fun when we were little to think of us all as cousins, but it would be silly now to think of that. Hell, Mordin's like 31, so that makes me like six years younger than him. Well, that's not too bad. I better not point that out to anyone, just in case.

Anyways, back to what I was talking about. So after I finally got out of the lounge, I stumbled into the pilot's seat, even though we were in FTL, and there wasn't really anything I had to do, unless we ran into trouble. So, I decided to educate myself about turians. I already knew that it was very, very unlikely that I would have any negative reactions to him. I have like a super immune system. My dad has Vrolik syndrome, and my parents wanted to make sure I wasn't complicated in anyway, so I underwent genetic treatments in-utero. Plus, there was the fact that I've been with quarians before. Some of those reunions I talked about have been on Rannoch, and most recently, just two years ago. So anyways, I had a very, very educating eight hours to myself, before I headed to Mordin's quarters. After a shower, and a change of clothes of course.

I quickly sent Jerry a message, before I knocked on Mordin's door: "Sorry. No chat tonight. 3 Syd." I knocked on his door, and he opened it with a smile. I kissed him in return, as the door closed behind me. I started to get a little more aggressive with him, then he pulled away laughing. He said, "Well. If I had known that you felt this strongly, I wouldn't have been so damned nervous around you." I giggled, "It was cute." He pulled away some more, and coughed in his hand. "I've, uh, gone to the liberty of getting us some drinks and finger-foods. Most of it is fruit. Just, um, don't touch any of the weird looking ones." I slapped his arm, and took a seat on his couch. I made him go slack-jawed when I said in return, "If I can drink a pint of ryncol, and not die, I'm sure I can handle your turian fruit. But I won't touch it, regardless." We fell into easy conversation after that. But with me being me, as soon as we had finished all our snacks, and our glasses, I pounced on him, well not quite.

He went to reach to refill my glass, and I stopped him by grabbing his wrist. I was already practically leaning on him, and then I gave him a little smirk, as I moved to straddle his waist. His hands quickly fell to rest on my ass. We quickly went back to our breathless kissing, this time not so hurried. We took our time. We took our time all night, actually.

I awoke in the morning in the best mood ever. Mordin, oddly, was still wrapped around me, sleeping. I hadn't really taken a great deal of time to think about, exactly, how I felt about him at that point. It's hard to put in words, but when I thought about him that morning, I couldn't stop smiling.

He woke up a few minutes later, and breathed a "Good morning," into my hair. I replied, with a long awaited, "Morning sunshine." I rolled over, face-to-face with him, and started to kiss him. He struggled to say in-between kisses, "It's... too... late... for... this," but he didn't stop. Eventually he pulled away though and chuckled, "Your too much." I replied with an, "It's ok to indulge sometimes." We got dressed anyways, we were still three days out from Illium.

We had breakfast with each other, before we went off to work. I was sitting in my pilot's seat for a mere five minutes, before my mother spoke to me in my earpiece, for once, "It seems as though I was correct about Mordin Shepard-Vakarian. How was your night, Sydney?" I smiled, and said out-loud, "It was good, ma. He's a very sweet guy." She replied, and it sounded teasing, "That's good to hear, sweetie. I won't tell your father."

Jerry then scared the crap out of me, "Hey!" I spun around so fast, I thought I was going to get whiplash, he smirked and continued anyways, "You ditched me last night." He crossed his arms across his chest, "Guess you got lucky, huh?" he winked. And just when I couldn't possibly get any redder, Karin steps up. "Who got _lucky_?" She put emphasis on each syllable of the word, then she looked at my cherry-red face, "Sydney got laid? Ooh, who was it Syd?" I opened my mouth, and probably was stuck like that for a little too long, before I replied, "No one, ma'am." She stared at me, one eyebrow cocked, a stern expression developing on her face, before she gasped and pointed, "Nooo. No way. Hell no. Oh, hell no." That wasn't exactly the most reassuring thing she could have said. I swallowed hard and adverted my gaze. She put a hand on my shoulder, forcing me to look back at her, "Really?" I swallowed, and gave her a simple, "Yup." She started laughing and grabbed her sides, she walked away still laughing, loudly. I looked to Jerry and asked, "What the hell was that?" he shrugged, and said "No idea." I, too, had no idea what was the deal with Karin, but I still spent that night with Mordin too.

The next morning, Karin came up to me in the cockpit. She stated simply, "We're sparring today." Now, it wasn't uncommon to have entire days devoted to sparring, especially since we started this co-op, turians loved to spar. So I replied, "Thanks for letting me know. I'll be down in a few minutes to watch." Karin's face and voice got a whole lot more serious, "No. We are sparring. You and me. See you in a half-hour." And she turned around and left. I am close to Karin, but she still scares the shit out of me. I didn't know what to think. The only thing I could actually think of was that, Karin wants to kick my ass for bedding her brother.

After a few minutes, I quickly went to engineering, where Mordin was most times. I found him there, and since we weren't exactly in private, I casually whispered to him, "Karin's gonna kick my ass." He straightened, and led me to a corner, "Why?" was his dumbass reply. I was ready to scream at him, but kept it at a whisper still, "Because I slept with you, brilliant! She just told me to meet her for a sparring match. What the hell else could it be?" His mandibles flared, he was probably amused, "Well, I can't get you out of it. But I'll be there."

Twenty minutes later, I was taping my hands and bouncing on the balls of my feet, waiting for Karin to show up. I was wearing a black sports bra, and tight black shorts. My hair was up in the tightest ponytail I could manage. I learned from past sparring matches with Karin, not to wear a tank top. She liked to grab the loose fabric, it was harder for her to grab a sports bra. She never used her biotics during these things, but I could still feel it in her. I've sparred with her on and off before, but never because she was pissed at me. We were about evenly matched when all else was normal. The only reason I could keep up, was that I had trained since I was like eight or ten with my mom, who has a metallic alloy body and really, really fast reflexes. Karin is a damn Spectre, she's good, awesome even.

Finally Karin showed up, Mordin in tow. A few other people had gathered in the hold before them, Jerry, Nick, Naron, the perverts Preston and Diamond, and a few other turians that I didn't know too well. I think they were making bets. Karin, already taped up, had a red tank top, and black and white shorts on. Obviously advertising her N7 status. Her hair was in a high bun.

Little was said before we started, I looked at Mordin, who gave me an apologetic nod. About five rounds in, I had a bloody lip and a crap load of bruises on my knees. Damn girl loves to target knees. But it wasn't like I was the only one taking a beating, I was getting her good too. I was particularity proud of the black-eye she had by then. We fucking went on for ten rounds before Nick called a draw. I was tired, thirsty, and oddly, hungry. I collapsed on the floor, I didn't give a damn. Karin threw a shockwave at the wall, before she practically drowned herself with her water bottle.

After a few moments, I struggled off the cool floor, and wobbled over to Karin. I said between breaths, "What... the... hell... was... that... about?" She smiled and grabbed both my shoulders, and dragged me close to her. I was scared for a fleeting moment, as she leaned down to whisper in my ear, "Turians respect soldiers. Warriors. Women who can fight. Mordin's never seen you fight like that." She pulled away, "You're welcome." The bitch smiled, and so did I. Needless to say, I spent that night in Mordin's quarters too.

We arrived at Illium later the next day, but Karin and Mordin didn't waste any time setting to work on taking care of Eble Sen. They took a larger team with them, I was actually dragged along. When Karin told me that she had gotten permission from Alliance higher-ups for me to be on the ground-team, I thought she was joking. And I told her that too. I said something like, "Who's gonna fly you guys back when I die?" But, I still ended up going. I had a few tech upgrades on my omni-tool, and I do like to make smoke grenades, along with my model ships. I had a feeling this was just another one of Karin's ploys to make me more appealing to her brother, or something. I've heard there's something to be had with sharing blood and sweat on the battlefield. And when I heard the groan Mordin made, practically in my ear, when I got a head shot on a pirate with my pistol, before he could get it with his sniper, I knew I was right. But, I wasn't the only person dragged along. It was me, Karin, Mordin, Jerry, Naron, Nick, and another turian named Eldredge. Diamond was made the temporary XO, since we needed more than one biotic, and Nick was just that, a super biotic like his mom.

As we kept advancing up the building, I heard Karin mumble something like, "Reminds me of the Dantius towers mom told us about," to Mordin, who nodded his head. We were starting to get our asses kicked near the top, and before long, we were face-to-face with Eble Sen. He was bitching about something like, opportunities, and other shit. I didn't care, I was buzzing with adrenaline, I don't know how the others could pay attention. By the time the two Spectres were done talking to him, he was dead. Karin had strangled him with her biotics, and the rest of us took care of the remaining pirates and slavers. It was fun.

After the reports and everything were completed, we headed to the Citadel for a debriefing, and a much needed shore-leave. It was nearly the holidays, so since we're an Alliance vessel, we got two weeks off, whereas normally, we would get a day. It also probably helped that we took down the largest slaver, who operated in counsel space. The turian crew didn't seem to mind.

It took us another three days to reach the Citadel. I was spending my evenings with Mordin, finding out we had a lot more in common than I thought. And talking about random things, like our favorite foods, music, and colors. We already knew a lot about each other, from when we were kids, but we changed, and we hadn't really spent a lot of one-on-one time together, since we enlisted.

I caught Jerry on the second day in FTL, during lunch. I asked him who he was talking to at night, now that I was otherwise occupied. He chuckled and said, "Well, actually, I've been talking to Karin. She punches around that bag in the hold, before retiring." I started teasing him about it, but I was really glad he started talking to her again. I think they make a good couple, even though they've tried it out a few times. They must just give up too easy. Maybe it'll go better this time, since they're on the same ship.

I'm almost caught up to today. So the first day of shore-leave, Mordin and I went out to dinner, did some window shopping and browsing, and rented a hotel room. Normal enough day, but it was a special treat for us. Mordin was gone when I woke up this morning, but left me a message via omni-tool. Some sort of Spectre-like business popped up. No big deal, but when I went into the bathroom, to take a shower, I found this diary sitting on the sink. I knew it was from him, even before I opened it. We stopped at an antique store yesterday, and I commented on diaries, since he didn't understand their purpose. He must have picked this beauty up when I wasn't looking. Did I mention he was sweet? Tonight we're going to Nick's parent's house for dinner. A few of the Reaper war heroes are going to be there too. Crap. I need to pick up something nice to wear. Anyways, we're spending the holidays at his parent's house. My mom and dad are coming up too. My mom's completely mobile now, no broadcast range limitations. Our good friend, Admiral Tali'Zorah, created the upgrades, modeled after the geth.

But when this merry little season is over, we will be back out on the Olympia. There's always a rogue merc group, a new band of pirates, slavers, and rising problems with the yahg. It's nice just to relax, and have some time to ourselves. I have a feeling we'll be doing this stuff for years to come. It's not always fun and games, even though I joke, a lot.


End file.
